ACCC Takes Site Claiming It Can Cure Cancer To Court

Online charlatans don't get taken to task anywhere often enough for our liking, so it's always pleasing to see a seemingly dodgy operator face the music. The ACCC is suing a Western Australian woman who has run numerous sites claiming that she can cure cancer.

The ACCC has begun legal proceedings against Gwyneth Graham, who is associated with a number of sites which claim cancer can be cured -- a claim the ACCC says violates consumer laws which make it an offence to lie about the characteristics of a service. The case will next be heard on March 4 in Perth.

The placebo effect does not work unless the condition is self-limiting. It works on headaches, but does not shrink tumours.

It's not so much physiological effect as statistical anomaly mixed with reporting bias and psychological factors. Objective endpoints tend not to be influenced by it, but subjective measures such as vague descriptions of "pain" do.

As an Oncology Surgeon it's great to see some action taken against these quacks; they prey on the most vulnerable.
Maybe one day some Health Minister will have the intestinal fortitude to make the isolated treatment of cancer by non medically qualified people a criminal offence.